Pink Colored Lillies
by Softhalo
Summary: Hinata loses almost everything in a matter of hours, and is taken away to grow up in a safehouse with others like her. But is she really safe? It may be fine from the outside, but what about on the inside? NaruHina centered with SasuSaku, and other canon pairings


**A/N: Ok so, i'm actually putting so much love into this fanfic, normally i just shove out a chapter and call it a day, but im rlly trying here with this one. I spent like a weekish on this chapter, and it's not even that long. If you've read anything else i've ever done u kinda know that i write short, not long and detailed. But god i rlly hope y'all like this fanfic, its kinda like an anastasia ripoff. Please leave a review because anything is appreciated, and it'll help me tremendously.**

Most gardens seem to be filled with roses, or something like that. But in this garden there lay lilies, thousands of them. A blinding white field that mimics a snowy winter landscape. How funny it must be to the gardener, to see a girl who has eyes almost same color sitting in the middle, who's clad in white and purple attire, waiting for someone to come find her. Someone to take her away from home, out of the flowers she so dearly loves. But the gardener does not come, and the lilies are being stained red at the edge of the garden.

Love, what really is it? Hinata isn't sure, but she does know that she loves. She loves the lilies that bloom in her family's garden in the springtime. How soft the petals are, and how pure and clean the color white is. The long green stems seem to go on forever, and when they all begin to bloom, that is her favorite time of the year. She loves her mother and her father, and her sister as well. All three of them are precious to her large, loving heart, even at such a young, tender age. If she had to describe it as a color, perhaps she'd choose pink, because red was too harsh to be the color of love. And love was gentle for Hinata, she was never one to be so bold and rough. Red was bold love, not Hinata's kind of love. So no, love was not the color red. But she doesn't like the color pink anymore, because those white lilies, they are pink now. Not red, she wishes they were, because then it might be easier to look at them, the intensity could make her forget about it all. But instead it was a gentle flow of the red into the white that had left the lilies pink, so Hinata found herself hating the color from then on.

Her eyes are glossy as she waits in the flower field, the purpley white of her irises scanning the surroundings. There is a woven basket next to her as she sits, filled with the flowers she loves. She hugs her scraped and red knees as she listens to the screams from her house, the large white building reeks of red. Of blood. The lilies soon will not be white any longer, instead dyed completely pink from the liquid leaking from many bodies in the flower field. Her body shakes, and tears pour down her rosy cheeks, hitting the white cloth she is draped in. Snot drips down her face, she ends up smearing it around with her tears as she tries to wipe them both away at once. Trying to cover up her fear and sadness, trying to be strong like her family so desperately wanted. How she wishes he was here to scold her for this, to tell her to toughen up, anything at all. It's funny how you wish for all the things you once hated to come back once you lost what you love.

She is thin and small, like a delicate flower. Her breath is shaky, like a stem that could be snapped by even the youngest children. Ready to be sliced apart, waiting for the scissors of the gardener to come and snip her in half. Hinata waits, eyes closed as she sobs harder. She screams out for someone, anyone, because death would be better than this pain in her chest. If for not someone to come find her, she wishes for that release the rest of her family was granted hours before. A hand grabs her roughly and she screams, but after a harsh shh finds herself looking at her cousin, whom she thought she loved, but she doesn't know if he loves her back. Hinata never knew if she was supposed to love one sided. Ever so cold, and ever so distant it seemed like he hated her instead, yet he was always by her side. The small loving girl next to the tall and cold boy who never seemed to smile. He was Hinata's shadow, and yet she did not want to step upon him, she wanted to bring him into the light, no longer a shadow instead a person. But he never accept her hand, reaching out towards him, her chubby fingers grabbing the air in front of him. Polar opposites is what the cousins feelings for each other seemed to be, and yet Neji pulls her up and embraces her, squeezing her tightly, Hinata cannot breathe when he does this but the comfort from seeing him gives her more than enough air. Her hands are tightly wrapped in his shirt, the tan fabric is her lifeline as he moves to hoist her up into his arms. Neji is here for her, here to take her away, to protect her, no more pink stained lilies and no more screams and smells of blood reeking with hints of iron.

"It's going to be okay Hinata, I'm here, I'll protect you." he whispers as she digs her head into his rough shoulder, hiding her eyes from the scenery around her. The bodies she saw fall limp and the blood spilled into the soil. Never again does she want to look away from her cousin. The lilies she once loved are forever soiled pink.

They wait at the local train station sitting on a bench. Hinata is wearing a large brimmed hat that covers her face, as well as a light purple peacoat. It's warm and cozy and she finds herself tucking her chin into it, trying to disappear deep into the coat's fuzz. Neji sits next to her, his comparatively large hand holding her small, cold one. He wears a frown on his face as he is waiting for the train to arrive, they do not have time to sit around and wait forever. Time is the cat, and they are the mouse. It's still springtime but today is colder than usual. There are chilling gusts of wind all about in the air, blowing ice into the bones of those unfortunate enough to believe today would be warm in the northern section of Konoha.

Hinata stares into the cracks of the bricks beneath her feet, there are small flowers blooming. If they can find life anywhere, maybe so could she. The flowers are persevering even in the harshest of conditions, the roughest of habitats. Yet they bloom so brightly so beautifully despite all that is thrust against them. It brings a smile to her face, because it's a reminder that hope exists everywhere.

Neji takes her small hand into his own again as a whistle sounds in the distance. He looks at his cousin how pitiful she looks all rosy cheeked with her under eyes still slightly red from crying so hard. What a shame she lost everything so young he may not love her like she loved him, but she didn't deserve this. She's still only a child despite everything he had been put through by the Hyuga family.

Hinata likes trains, many times when her family would travel on official businesses they would take the train instead of a vehicle. The latter was told to Hinata to be too dangerous by her parents, it was easier to be caught and taken away by bad men. In a train they could be in any car and taking over a whole train filled with scary men who were so tall they looked like trees to Hinata must be very hard. But the tree men weren't mean to her like they were to the bad men, they'd extend their branches and bring her up to the sky, high, high up. Perched on the top she could see for what she imagined were miles upon miles, everyone looked small as she sat on the top of those tree men's shoulders. But the tree men met lumberjacks today, and they were cut down, into small little pieces. Their branches were broken from the limbs, and twigs snapped off. Then turned into firewood, fueling a fire to consume the whole estate. She misses the tree men so dearly.

Now on the train she doesn't have her own cabin with cakes and tea, instead she sits on a cushioned bench in the main boxcar, with Neji. There are so many people surrounding her, all shapes and sizes. Perhaps there are some tree men leftover who the lumberjacks didn't find, but Neji does not let her get up to look. He says it's too dangerous for either to get up from their seat, they must sit still instead. However he calms her cries of protest when he gives her the window seat, now Hinata can look at something else that wasn't the people in the box car, she stares at the trees in bloom creating a painting of pink and green to her young eyes.

Neji is talking to a girl with pork buns for hair, she looks very different from everyone else, and they speak in hushed voices. Soon she slides between Neji and Hinata creating a gap between the cousins. Hinata frowns and tries to climb over, but the girl picks her up and puts her into her lap. Neji doesn't smile, but his eyes relax, and so does his body.

"I'm Tenten, and i've heard so much about you Hinata," she laughs her voice sweet like honey and Hinata reaches to touch the buns utop her head. However she stops when she hears this and comes back down to face the girl. She's the same age as Neji, so she's older than Hinata who is still only six.

"R-really? M-me?" Hinata stutters out, her speech impediment fully showing. Her stutter had been around for a long time, mostly acting up around new people and adults. Her face is flushed and she places her little hands on Tenten's shoulders, making eye contact with the girl.

"Yes, i've heard you were quite the pretty girl, and I just had to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out they were right!"

Hinata's face turns redder as she says this, and she scrambles off the girls lap, Tenten is laughing and Neji only frowns at her mischief.

"Look, now you've gone and embarrassed her, how mean!" He says with distaste spitting from his tongue.

"Ah, i'm sorry Hinata, that wasn't very polite of me was it?" Tenten apologizes, her voice stifling laughs as she brushes Hinata's bangs out of her eyes. Hinata puffs her cheeks up and frowns, and turns away again to look out the window.

Once hours have passed and Hinata is now sleeping, her hands cradled towards her face and her head laying on Tenten's lap, Neji resumes the conversation from before.

"You're sure it's a safe place to take her? Won't they still come after her?"

"Oh please, the place is crawling with royal refugees, it's a safe haven for all of them."

"I know you say that, but those people." Neji stares at his little cousin, so young, so delicate, so kind. "They killed almost everyone, it's just Hinata and I left as far as i'm aware. They will definitely try and finish the job, after all the Hyuga bloodline still exists as long as we still breathe."

Tenten pats him on the shoulder roughly, "There are many people like that too, you're not the only ones out there. The security provided will make sure that no harm comes to you both, even though I know it sounds too good to be true." She smiles, "But trust me, no one will be getting to either of you as long as Lady Tsunade is around. She'd never allow it to happen to people like you." She turns to look at the small girl resting in her lap, "No matter how awful your family might have been, you both are just children, there is no sin that you have both committed as grave what led to the downfall of your family. Neither of you deserve death, they most likely already took an innocent child's life, no need to take others."

Neji flinches, he wasn't fast enough to save Hinata's sister. He heard her screams and cries for help, but his only priority was Hinata, someone else in the family was assigned to Hanabi's protection. Neji could only hope that she too was saved from death, that she had been reached in time. Hinata was lucky to be outside at the time, to be able to run away as fast as she could from the men inside who'd been cutting down people left and right. The downfall of the Hyuga royal family left her the only heir, other than Hanabi. If she stayed alive, the crown princess of the family, then there was still hope.

Neji had found her just in time, the search for her was getting desperate as he tried to find her. There was blood thick in the air, making it hard to breathe and smoke was beginning to exit from the royal families mansion. It was billowing out and Neji could barely see inside the house, calling out for Hinata. He gagged as the smell of smoke was turning into the stench of burning flesh inside the estate. He had to find her, that was his whole purpose in life, to protect his little cousin. It was what he trained his whole childhood for, to make sure she made it to adulthood and took the position of queen. She couldn't die so soon, not as long as Neji was still breathing, still running, still yelling out for her. Then he saw her, in the lilies stained pink by the blood spilt that day, bodies morbidly surrounding the flowers. He could see her dark blue hair contrasting with those white lilies, and heard her scream. He had to reach her and fast, before someone else did. He was lucky that time, and so was she.

He can only hope Hanabi was that lucky too.

"We don't know if Hanabi is dead, i wasn't assigned to her. It's up to another person to make sure she's safe. She could be headed for the same place, or maybe she's being taken to another place, a different safe house." He says, voice deeper and more stoic than normal.

"Don't hope too much, it's just better to assume the worst then to have false hope. But I hope you're right too, for Hinata's sake." Tenten gives Neji a small smile and moves a strand of hair from his face. "Just don't let your worry take over the priority in front of you."

"You don't have to tell me that, i'm not an idiot." Neji scowls, and turns away, facing towards the rest of the train car.

His grip is hard on his other hand, and it's apparent to those who know him, Tenten in this case, that he is not comfortable in the small car full of strangers. She places her hand on his shoulder, and squeezes it gently. "Just relax, it's all going to be fine, we're almost there anyways." His expression does not change, but his grip lightens from his other hand.

Hinata is carried out in Tenten's arms, her small arms wrapped around the older girl's neck as she is held. It's warmer down south, more tropical than what they were used to in the north. Instead of a cold chill, the spring here was humid and moderate. Neji was regretting having dressed in a coat, it made him stand out down here compared to all the locals with thinner, shorter, articles of clothing. He eyes the station warrily, trying to see if anyone was looking at the group. He sees only one. A woman with amber eyes and long blonde hair is standing in the station, waiting. She smiles as she sees Tenten and Neji and her heels click towards them. Tenten hands Hinata over to the much older woman, who is glad to take the younger child into her arms. Neji's shoulders relax, she's definitely a friend, not a foe if Tenten was willing to give Hinata away so easily.

"It's good to see that you got here safely Tenten. I'm glad everything went smoothly, now we move on to the second step. Let's hurry now." Tenten nods and immediately starts to follow the woman towards the exit, Neji close behind. Outside the station waits a cab, bright yellow like the sunshine that is so bright down here. The young man inside rolls down the window, mostly exposing his face to the group. He has a large scar tracing down over his eye on one side of his face, and a mask covering his mouth. His silver hair would give the illusion of an older man, if not for his young face. The blonde woman leans into the window as she pokes her head inside. They talk for a moment and then her head returns from the abyss that is the taxi's passenger side window. She opens the back doors and motions for them to enter the car. After both Neji and Tenten are safely buckled in the woman enters the passenger side herself, Hinata still in her arms.

"Kakashi, this is Hinata, and behind us is Neji." The silver head man looks behind him and his eyes crinkle, suggesting that a smile has formed underneath the mask.

"It's nice to meet you both, i'm sure Lady Tsunade has already filled you in on what is happening?"

"Who? Have i already met this Tsunade woman?"

"You didn't introduce yourself? Or explain?"

The woman laughs soberly as she realizes her mistake, "Ah, i was so caught up in getting to the car safely i must have forgotten. Neji, my name is Tsunade, I run the safehouse you're going to with your cousin. Kakashi is a worker there, despite what it looks like he isn't an actual taxi driver."

"I see, that's smart…" He murmurs and turns his head away to look out the window. His eyes are heavy and Neji isn't really in the mood for small talk, after all it's been a long day for him. He would have gotten sleep on the train if he wasn't so paranoid about someone being a spy, or assassin, or something like that. Now that's it's safe, he can let his garud

Eyelids grow heavy as the car starts up, and exits the train station drop off point.

"So, the Hyuga royal family was this times victim, not surprising considering how high ranked they were. How unfortunate however, that only one heir is in our possession, hopefully the other was just as lucky." Kakashi grips the steering wheel a little harder as he says this. Even in his line of work, where he shouldn't be fazed by hearing this kind of news, it still creates a constriction in his chest. How cold-hearted people are when seeking revenge, to take that anger out on children, not even those who did wrong.

"That's all we can do, is hope for Hanabi. But we have Hinata and Neji, and that's what's important. I can only imagine what they just went through, i heard it was especially brutal this time round, the Akatsuki have certainly outdone themselves." Tsunade strokes Hinata's long blue hair as they pass through the countryside of the southern state, Konoha. Once a small village located in a forest, it's expanded into different territories with varying climates. Where they were headed was more like tropical and warm, a small location by the seashore.

"Yes, i suppose you're right, everytime it just gets worse." he frowns under his mask, "remember the downfall of the Uchiha clan? How awful that was, for them to be taken down from the inside, betrayed by their own. This genocide, it rivals the brutality we witnessed there."

"Truly, but it seems that luck is normally on our side, so hope will still remain despite these tragedies."

"Agreed."

Neji wakes up to Tenten's hands shaking him softly, rocking his body side to side.

"Wake up sleepyhead, we're here." she whispers.

His head is pounding softly as he fumbles to grab the car door's handle to open it up. Still slightly dazed he's met by a bright ray of sun hitting the metal of the cab and reflecting a bright light. He covers his eyes, trying to block out the excess of this newfound brightness. Hinata is now awake as well, and holding Tsunade's hand. It seems they were now acquainted, mostly likely from when the car was traveling and Neji was fast asleep.

A younger girl, maybe a year old than his cousin comes running out from the large house in the distance. She has soft pink hair and gentle green eyes. She jumps onto Tsunade and wraps her arms around the woman's leg.

"Mama! You're back!" Tsunade laughs sweetly and picks her up with her free hand, kissing her cheeks lovingly as the girl laughs happily.

"That i am Sakura, and i missed you while i was gone."

"I missed you too!" the girl giggles as she hugs her mother bringing her closer.

"Sakura, i have a very important task for you could you take this new arrival, her name is Hinata, to the room we prepared for her?"

"Duh, i can do that easy peasy. Leave it to me! I'll give her the whole tour." she wriggles out from Tsunade's arm and jumps down to Hinata. "My name is Sakura, it's very nice to meet you Hinata," she extends her hand for Hinata to shake. Timidly she reaches her hand out and takes Sakura's, shaking it. Sakura grins, and has Hinata follow her away to the house she came from.

"So, you have a daughter?" Neji asks, Tsunade didn't seem the type to marry let alone have a child.

"Ah, she's adopted, but yes." Tsunade smiles, "but more importantly let's get you, Neji, settled in yourself. Tenten, i'll leave it to you."

"C'mon Neji, i've heard you got quite the nice room, how lucky." Neji frowns as per usual, but follows Tenten anyways.

Hinata follows the cheery girl into the large house in the distance. Maybe here they have a garden, full of lilies, but she's not sure she wants to see lilies so soon. No, she's decided she doesn't ever want to see a lily in her life for a very long long time.

"So Hinata, do you want to meet the others? Or go to your room first?" Sakura turns on her heel and leans down to the shorter girl, so their eyes could meet when she speaks.

"U-um t-there are others?" Hinata stumbles on her words, and she feels silly for the mistake. This new girl, Sakura seemed too nice to be Hinata's friend, she reminded her more of the girls that would visit in the summertime when her father and mother would meet with other adults. They never stayed around to become real friends with her, only passing by to spend time.

"Of course silly, let's go see them first they should mostly in the main room. I think you'll get along with them just fine, so don't even worry about it. Everyone here is so nice!" Hinata was not reassured by this though, her history with meeting new people normally pointed in a different direction. But she put on a timid fake smile and follows Sakura into the main room.

A few kids were in the room, in different places. A boy with bright blonde hair caught Hinata's eye as soon as she walked in. He was shouting at a taller boy, one with black eyes that matched his hair. They seemed to be arguing and Sakura frowned as soon as she saw this.

"Naruto… Sasuke… are you seriously doing this right now? In front of our NEW guest." she rolled up her sweater's sleeve and balled her hand into a fist. Hinata shuts her eyes, and covers them with her hands for good measure. Two loud smacks were then heard and both boys were clutching their heads afterwards. Hinata peeked through her fingers and saw the boy with blonde hair get up. He walked towards her, her heart started to beat faster the closer he came. He took her hand off of her face, so he could get a better look at her, and she squealed nervously at the classless motion. His blue eyes met her own milky lavender ones and he smiled, the whisker-like scars on his face wrinkling when he did so.

"Hiya, I'm Naruto. And you are?" His voice is like sandpaper, rough and grainy. It's calming to Hinata's ears for some strange reason.

Hinata hands fumbled, trying to find a place to put them where it wouldn't seem so awkward.

"Hello? Earth to new girl?" he asked again leaning his ear towards her mouth so she could speak into it. His hand was cupped around his ear as he waited.

"It's H-Hinata." she whispered out to him.

"Hinata… that's a nice name!" he smiled and Hinata swore she had just met the sun himself. This boy, this sunshine boy, he shone so bright and so vividly. It seemed like he radiated happiness, with a carefree smile, he seemed like the kind of child to rarely ever be down in the dumps. She finds herself being drawn to him, like how the planets are pulled to orbit the sun.

"Geez Naruto, don't be so pushy, give her some space already!" Sakura shouts out, she pushes him out of the way and takes Hinata to the crowd that's formed in the background. "Well, here's everybody else. Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba, Temari, Choji, Shino, and uh, wait where are Gaara and Kankuro? Did they run off somewhere else again?" she puffs her cheeks up, imitating a chipmunk, and exhales heavily.

A girl with spiky dirty blonde hair, which was up in four pigtails, sitting legs crossed in defiance to no one in particular speaks up. She's the one who was identified earlier as Temari, "They're playing outside like normal, Gaara wanted to go the sandbox where he always is. Kankuro wanted to make sure he was safe so he followed him to make sure of that." She laughs when Sakura grumbles under her breath, obviously a little peeved from the sass filled response she had gotten.

"Thank you Temari, you can meet them later Hinata. They'll be out there for awhile."

Hinata nods, she wants to spend more time with the sunshine boy. But another beat him to the punch, a boy with a puppy bounds up to her, and she finds herself soon wrapped into a conversation with him. He's energetic, and spunky, and immediately takes to Hinata, even if she feels a little awkward around him. His rough voice and gnarly hair reminds her of a wolf cub, not to mention he hasn't cut his nails in a while which adds to said dememor. But they don't scratch her skin when he goes to shake her hand. Vigorously he does this, bouncing Hinata's body up and down, her hair flying everywhere, and she giggles, it's a fun sensation.

"Did ya wanna see anything here? Like you had at home? There's so much here, we probably have something like it, ya name it and i'll show ya. Anytime you ask." He barks out in excitement, if he had a real tail, it would be wagging. He was like a puppy, making new friends any chance he could.

"A garden" she whispers into his ear and he grins, flashing canines that are a little too big to be considered normal. He takes her hand and leads her outside. His puppy follows behind the two of them, barking happily and he tramples through the grass crushing blades beneath his small paws.

Hinata gasps as she sees it come into view, rows of different colored flowers and vegetables. It's different from the one at home, they didn't grow their own food, and the gardens consisted of only perfectly cut taperaries and white lilies. Here it was like an explosion of color, like fireworks were sprouting from the ground, with green smoke trailing behind them. She walks straight into the path laid out, Kiba following her jumping from stone to stone. A kind of game he had made up on the spot. Hinata feels like she's back at home, where everything was good and she can imagine her mother yelling out for her to come inside. She'd run into her arms, and let the smell of nutmeg and vanilla of her mother's dresses overwhelm her senses. The smell of home, like lavender and sugar of their dining room, and her own room. Her father would scold her for staining her white dresses with the dirt from outside, and her mother would laugh at him. Telling him to calm down, that she was only a child. And he'd smile and say Hinata was just like those lilies, beautiful and pure. He'd pull her into his arms and tell her she was his lily. Hanabi would rush in afterwords and hug her sister tightly, giggling with grievous joy.

But then she sees the flowers she hates, lilies vibrantly colored a bright shade of pink. There is no more calling from the kitchen, no more nutmeg, vanilla, lavender, or sugar. Only blood, and pink stained lilies that used to be white. They are not pure, and they are not beautiful. A lump forms in her throat, and she grips her burning chest. Warm and salty liquid falls from her eyes, down her cheeks as she sobs into the soil beneath her.

"Hinata? Are you okay?" Kiba asks, voice timid as he approaches the crying girl. She had been so happy just moments ago, what could had happened in such a short time? He crouches down next to her and his puppy, Akamaru, licks at her salty tears falling down her cheeks. She doesn't answer and just cries harder. He pulls her into his arms, onto his lap and lets her cry. Like his sister used to do with him, he rubs her back, hand going in a circular motion. She cries harder though, because her mother used to do the same. Hinata clutches Kiba's jacket and lets him continue however. All she wants to do is go home, but there is no more home for her to return to.

Sakura is concerned, the girl she had just brought in was nowhere to be seen. She had been too wrapped up talking to Ino about her friend Sasuke, and how they should include Hinata in their own activities soon. It was so exciting to have another girl with them, Temari was often moody, and Tenten was too old for them. She hadn't seen her leave with Kiba, but she did see that both were missing. Panicked, she asked the crowd if they knew where she went her mother had trusted her to get her acquainted, not to lose Hinata in the first hour! Shino spoke up and said they went to the garden, how he knew wasn't important, he knew everything always. Personally she found it creepy, when they first met she thought he was oh so scary. But then after giving him a chance he turned out to be not so bad, nice even.

Running out of the common room, Sakura sprinted off to the garden to go retrieve the missing girl. She heard sobs coming from the center, and feared for the worst. Hinata couldn't get hurt, she was supposed to be safe here. Sakura was going to be in so much trouble if her mother found out that after trusting her she'd let Hinata get hurt! And out of her sight! When she turned the corner however, she felt her heart drop. Hinata lay in Kiba's arms, cradled in his lap, as he stroked her back. How sad it was, she must have been set off by something in the garden. She saw it too often to count. It's hard to remember that the kids that come here are like herself. They're running away from danger, trying to escape from tragedy, to live a normal, safe life instead. Her best friend Ino, and everyone else came from a situation like that. Some worse than others, she shudders inside as she remembers when Sasuke came to the safe house. He didn't talk for months and it had taken Sakura even longer to get to speaking terms with him. Still he often wakes up screaming from how horrible it was for him to see the things he saw.

She walks slowly up to the pair, and wraps her arms around Hinata. They stay there until Hinata stops crying, about an hour afterwards.

"C'mon, let's get you settled in for the night." Hinata only nods an okay, and Sakura gently takes her hand. Kiba is about to follow, when Sakura shoots him a "not right now" look. He pouts but heads off in a different direction, Akamaru following behind him.

Hinata falls asleep as soon as she's changed into a new set of pajamas provided by Tsunade, she had bought Hinata a whole wardrobe as she did with all of the children. Sakura tucks her in, and moves a strand of hair away from her face. How hard it must be, how tiring it all must be. She finds herself crying from the pain of seeing another kid, another friend, to be put through something as devastating as this.

Neji is in the dining room with Tenten, eating a bowl of warm soup. They are silent as they both eat, today has been hard. Neji doesn't want to show weakness, doesn't want to cry, not in front of someone else. But how it hurts, everyone he knew, gone in just a few hours. The life he had, burnt to the ground, and the only people he knew. Well one was missing, and the other. He wasn't sure about anything with her, if he loved her, if he hated her, if he envied how easy she once had it. But now he knew he was all she had left, and she was all he had left. His chest is always tighten and he feels like a kettle on a burner. He couldn't reach the boiling point where he could scream and cry out in pain. Instead it's only hot, scalding, just seconds away from that boiling point. Neji felt he'd never reach it.

Tenten watches as he grips his spoon harder. Such a strong boy at his weakest point.


End file.
